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What’s wrong with Miami Dolphins receiver Mike Wallace?

He’s graded by Pro Football Focus as the No. 103 of 108 wide receivers in the NFL.

In his peak seasons of 2010 and 2011 he averaged 1,225 yards and eight touchdowns and was the league’s No. 11 receiver.

Last season, when he sat out training camp in protest of not receiving a long term contract, he had just 836 yards in 15 games although he still scored eight touchdowns. He graded as the No. 91 receiver.

So while the low yardage might not be that surprising, even Wallace is stunned that he has scored just a single touchdown.
“I’ve never been in this situation before,” Wallace said. “I’ve always at least had three touchdowns (at this point). You just have to keep working. You can’t get down on it, you can’t tank. I let it go the day after the game. You watch it and you’ve just got to go back to work, you’ve just got to stay positive. If you start being negative and be like ‘I only have one touchdown’ that’s going to rub off and it’s going to keep going bad. You have to be positive and believe something is going to happen and I think it will.”

So what does Wallace attribute to the slow start?

“I think I’ve had a touchdown or two that I probably could’ve made,” he said. “It’s different things. We might have taken a sack. We might have misconnected on a pass. I’m not going to say we haven’t tried, but different things have happened. We’re trying. It’s not like we’re just out there.”

Wallace has seven dropped passes this year, which is tied for third in the NFL with Tampa Bay’s Vincent Jackson. Only former Dolphin and current Browns receiver Davone Bess (nine drops) and Patriots receiver Aaron Dobson (eight drops) have more.

Wallace, given a $60 million ($27 million guaranteed) contract by the Dolphins to be the team’s deep threat, has caught a pass for more than 15 yards in just four of seven games this season. He’s caught a pass for more than 25 yards in just three games.

Wallace is 17th in the NFL in targets with 63, so it’s not like the Dolphins aren’t looking for him. But he’s caught just 48 percent of the passes thrown to him which is 94th in the NFL. He has 30 receptions. His former Steelers teammate Antonio Brown has caught 81 percent of passes thrown at him which is 2nd in the NFL. Brown has 56 receptions on 69 targets.

“I don’t feel like I’m doing as good as I want to, no doubt, but I don’t feel like I’m doing an awful job either,” Wallace said. “Within the circumstances of things going on, I think I’m doing a pretty good job.”

Wallace said the Dolphins need to have “more explosive plays on offense” and not just in the deep game, which has struggled this year.

Before the season coaches said they were going to utilize Wallace all over the field, including in the slot. So far, he has almost always lined up on the right side.

The team will rely on him even more with receiver Brandon Gibson, who was graded by Pro Football Focus as the No. 14 receiver in the NFL this season, out for the year.